Costa Rica

August 2 - 12, 2018

Chris and I decided to take a trip all by ourselves. My mom came by to watch the children - freeeeeedom!!

 As I'm sure you can imagine, Costa Rica is an amazingly beautiful country. After an 8 hour flight we dipped down into a green mountainous paradise. We flew in the Liberia Airport and immediately ran into a problem...we had rented a car for a reasonable price per day from a well known rental car agency only to find out that they were charging a $2000 deposit. Yes, you read that right - $2000! It turns out that they have had a problem with people just driving off with their cars and so the renter needs to purchase an expensive insurance plan to ensure that doesn't happen. We kindly refused, and after switching several 'Chados' (which we finally translated to 'Shuttles') we found our way, car-less, to Playas De Coco (aka Coco Beach). 

Nope.

Much more my speed...

Our first hotel was so adorable, it was called La Puerta Del Sol. It was an unpretentious hotel with really large room with an enormous walk-in shower that was the size of a bedroom. It also had a beautiful swimming pool with a bar. Every morning we woke up to the sound of roosters. At night we would hear strange beeping noises that sounded like an old Atari game. Not sure what those were - I've heard audio from baby crocodiles that sounded just like them but I'm assuming that wasn't it...but maybe? Costa Rica is somewhat known for their man eating crocodiles...

La Puerta Del Sol

Relaxing at our first hotel. You can't see the mojito in my hand but, trust me, it's there.

You know a place is awesome when they have this at the Auto Mercado

Coco Beach 

These guys were EVERYWHERE!

We spent a couple of days in Coco just walking around. It's not a huge town, and we were not there during high tourist season. The weather was hot -- as we expected it to be--but not as rainy as was originally forecast. And right on the beach it was downright comfortable. We found some amazing restaurants, including a gastropub by the name of Provecho. We got somewhat friends with the owners and told them that we really wanted to go deep sea fishing. They happened to know a guy, and the next day we were out on the ocean! They also told us that if we caught anything their chef would cook us something awesome. We spent a gorgeous day out on the water and caught more fish than we knew what to do with! We brought it back to the gastropub and, indeed, their chef made us some amazing ceviche and fried mahi. I'm not a fish eater - but even I scarfed it up.

Ceviche & Fried Mahi

Caught one!!! This is actually a small one...

'Monkey Head Rock'

After a few days on foot we decided to check the rental car locations in Coco. Turns out that the locations that aren't near the airport do not require as enormous of a deposit. We managed to get a car for a reasonable price and we finally had some wheels. Like, 1995 Toyota Tercel wheels, but still. I feel fairly convinced that all of our 90s cars eventually ended up in Costa Rica. But that's a different story...haha.

Now that we were mobile, we were able to drive around the country and we immediately headed down the coast. We happened across Flamingo Beach -- hands down the most beautiful beach I've ever been to. Chris and I rented boogie boards and frolicked in the water like children for hours and hours. We played with hermit crabs and swam with wild sting rays. Later we rode some horses on the beach. I didn't love the way that the horses were kept - they wore extremely tight hackamores and just plain looked unhappy.

Flamingo Beach. Did I mention that we had the whole beach to ourselves?

Our next hotel lacked the charm of our first, but it was SWANKY. It was called the Andaz Costa Rica Resort in Papagayo in Guanacaste. We were far out on a peninsula and were surrounded by wildlife. Capuchin monkeys swung on the trees right outside our room and stole peoples' food off their plates. At night we could hear howler monkey calling to one another.

We also took a drive to the Arenal Volcano Hanging Bridges. I don't know if our GPS decided to take us the back way or what, but whatever way we went was BUMPY! I can't believe that our little car made it though some of that, especially undamaged. There were areas where the roads were nearly washed out entirely. Once at Arenal we were under the canopy and it was so peaceful and beautiful. We could hear it raining but we hardly noticed because of so much tree cover.





The resort had its own beach house and it's own little spread of beach. We spent hours there drinking Banana Coladas and watching the stingrays jump out of the water. It was heavenly and a wonderful way to spend our last day there.

The resort was super swanky but still needed a little translation help. 

PURA VIDA!!!